Dane County confirmed 33 new coronavirus cases today, which brings the County’s total to 3,562. Of those total cases, 1,142 are considered active.
Those aged 10-19 experienced the largest number of positives for the day, 11 or 33.3 percent of today’s total cases. There was also eight more cases for those in their 20s and seven for those in their 30s. Those 9 and under along with those in their 50s an 60s all added two more cases to their respective age groups while those in their 70s grew by one.
Dane County reported no new deaths which keeps the total death toll in the county at 33, however, total hospitalizations for the county for COVID-19 grew to 267 today. Those 9 and under, in their 20s, 70s and 80s each had one additional person in their age groups hospitalized, while those in theirs 20s and 40s had two additional people hospitalized. Currently, there are 31 people hospitalized with nine in the ICU.
Of the 33 new cases reported today, 6 new cases, or 18.18 percent of all new cases, are in people who identify as Hispanic. Hispanic people now make up 15.13 percent of all COVID-19 related cases in the County while only making up six percent of the population. There were also three, or 9.09 percent of all new cases, attributed to those who identify as Black. They now make up 12.6 percent of all cases while only making up six percent of the population in Dane County. Those who identify as Asian also grew by three, or 9.09 percent of all new cases. Asian people make up five percent of the population in Dane County and 3.76 percent of all cases.
As the number of negative tests reported is lagged by several days, the most updated data on positive test percentage for a day is for July 15, with the positive test percentage has been updated to 4.30 percent while updated numbers now have July 14 at 27.57 percent, July 13 at 6.46 percent, July 12 at 15.43 percent and July 11 at 6.70 percent. Madison365 expects that these numbers will adjust considerably as more negative and positive tests are attributed to those dates in the coming days. The break down for each day can be found on Public Health of Madison and Dane County’s Dashboard.
In partnership with the Boys and Girls Club of Dane County and Madison365, more pop up, drive-thru testing centers will be taking place again this week. You can read more about dates, times and the specific sites in our previous story. Testing is still available today at Alliant Energy Center from 8 am – 4 pm. Yesterday, Public Health of Madison and Dane County reported no wait after 9:30 am.
Yesterday, Public Health of Madison and Dane County released their updated Data Snapshot for July 4 – July 17. Currently, for those dates, Dane County has averaged 80 cases per day which is down from last week’s data summary from 98. However, this number still puts that metric in the red. In the previous 14 days, there were a total of 1,122 cases with 437 between 18-25. Of the 1,122 cases, 846 have been interviewed with 40 percent of those saying they attended a gathering or party with people outside their house hold.
Though the percentage of positive cases contacted within 48 hours has also improved to 43 percent, this threshold is also still in the red according to the updated information released. The other metric that has improved and has now moved into the yellow is the percentage of those new cases who do not know where they have may have gotten COVID from. That number has improved to 30 percent – which is just at the threshold to be yellow. Public Health of Dane County also noted that they are unable to provide the data and update the metrics surrounding the percentage of positives for each day as there is a considerable lag in processing negative tests due to volume of both cases and tests over the past month. According to their update, they do process positive data within 24 hours so they can be quickly contacted – however, their most up to date testing data is only through July 10. They have hired additional staff to assist in the processing of data.
The updated Data Snapshot also gave us the latest information on the impact of COVID surrounding our communities of color. Though those who identify as Hispanic or Latinx make up 7 percent of tests, 17 percent of cases during those weeks and 10 percent of the hospitalizations. According to the new data for July 4 – July 17, Black people were six percent of all tests, 13 percent of cases and 23 percent of hospitalizations for those dates as well. Black people make up about six percent of the population in Dane County. For those dates, Asian people made up three percent of tests and three percent of cases while making up seven percent of the population in Dane County.
We will have an update of today’s statewide numbers later this afternoon.
